Compared to...

Studio scene comparison (RAW)

For a (more) level playing field for comparison we also shot our studio scene in RAW mode with each camera and converted it using Adobe Camera RAW. Because Adobe Camera RAW applies different levels of sharpening to different cameras (this confirmed) we had to use the following workflow for these conversions:

Load RAW file into Adobe Camera RAW (Auto mode disabled)

Set Sharpness to 0 (all other settings default)

Open file to Photoshop

Apply a Unsharp mask: 80%, Radius 1.0, Threshold 0

Save as a TIFF (for cropping) and as a JPEG quality 11 for download

This is our standard studio scene comparison shot taken from exactly the same tripod position. Lighting: daylight simulation, >98% CRI. Crops are 100%. Ambient temperature was approximately 22°C (~72°F). Camera settings as per previous pages.

Olympus E-410 (RAW) vs. Nikon D40X (RAW)

Olympus E-410 (RAW)

Nikon D40X (RAW)

2,959 KB JPEG (3648 x 2736)

2,908 KB JPEG (3872 x 2592)

Removing any differences in image processing (by using the same RAW processing engine) we get a better view of the actual image captured by the sensor. Both camera's images look better with clearer detail and edge definition. The E-410's highlights while still not as 'smooth' as the D40X do at least look a little better, the clipping is less obvious.